Stuck in a Chinese novel

Wei Jun waited in front of his apartment building, waiting for Lin Ruan to pick him up. His phone rang and it turned out, he was waiting in the wrong spot.

He was asked to go to the roof of the building and he did exactly that. A minute later, a helicopter was landing on the helipad. Seeing that no one came out, it was obvious that that was Wei Jun's ride.

Wei Jun made his way to it and opened the door, hoping to find Lin Ruan, and he did, just not in her usual office attire or casual clothes.

She was wearing a robe. A pure white robe like an old Korean shaman. Wei Jun looked at her for a while without a word. She finally said, "I know, it's tacky. But what can we do? We have to wear it."

"We?" Wei Jun was more concerned about that part than any other.

"Everyone has to." Lin Ruan replied. Wei Jun sighed and hopped in the helicopter. The helicopter took off and Wei Jun stared outside.

"Anything I need to know about?" Wei Jun asked while still looking outside.

"Thunder Cloud Tempest." Lin Ruan said, "That is the name of our sect. Our sect is a high-grade sect, 7th on empire ranking."

"And being 7th is apparently a good thing." Wei Jun said.

"Well, it used to be number three but except the top two, all others are almost equal in strength so the ranking changes among the rest of the top ten every three to five years." Lin Ruan said.

"And what you said still doesn't make the sect the number one." Wei Jun turned to her as he said before he turned his attention outside again and added, "It's a disappointment. And arrogance. They cannot take the title of the number one and yet they wish to control me."

Lin Ruan looked at Wei Jun, no reply in her mind for that. She understood another thing about this brother of hers, the one who wasn't a lecher. Wei Jun was competitive. And not just competitive but anything lower than one was a no-go for him. His expression wasn't good when she informed her of the sect's position.

"At least you don't disagree with me," Wei Jun said. "But I didn't agree either. This sect is the reason why I am able to keep my life and strength. Without this sect, I was nothing and I am nothing." Lin Ruan replied.

"You're successful. You run a company two men cannot run alone and you do a great job at it. No one has any contribution to that." Wei Jun praised her.

Lin Ruan, however, didn't take that praise as she once again argued, "Without this talent, I would have never been chosen and granted all of this."

Wei Jun didn't say anything to that because that was her life. Lin Ruan's whole life was based on that fact. She was brought into the Ruan family to bear Wei Jun's child.

Had her talent not been enough, she would have served no purpose to anything.

The rest of the travel was quiet. Wei Jun saw that they flew on the ocean for quite a while before they could see an island in the distance.

"That's the island where our sect is situated." Lin Ruan said before she added, "Its name is Tempest."

'Jeju.' Wei Jun, however, had a different name in his mind for that. His theory was correct; this world was advanced but the old systems of the world were still there. Although this world was larger than the earth he was from, the geographical structure was the same, it was just bigger than his original world.

The China he was in was old-day China, ancient China where the Mongolian nation hadn't split up yet into many different countries, equipping themselves with different languages and cultures.

However, the island Wei Jun was seeing wasn't exactly like Jeju. The Jeju island he had been to didn't have such a towering mountain in its heart. It was so tall that the peak crossed the clouds in the sky.

The helicopter began to land and after landing, Wei Jun got out. Lin Ruan followed and said, "Welcome to the Tempest mountain."

She then waved her hand and said, "Come on. We have a long way to go yet."

Wei Jun didn't exactly understand what she meant by a long way to go when he saw stairs, leading all the way up in round circles.

"And we have to climb all these stairs?" Wei Jun asked.

"Why do you think I asked you to be so early?" Lin Ruan asked. Wei Jun began to climb up the steps when Lin Ruan said, "If you go like this, we will be here all night. Possibly the next day too."

Wei Jun narrowed his eyes but sped up. Lin Ruan followed suit but she activated her Qi armament which also reinforced her stats. She was apparently faster than Wei Jun and Wei Jun had to exert his full speed to follow her.

Wei Jun hadn't changed yet and he decided to change on the way. Lin Ruan had told him that he could do that when they arrived but he didn't want to be an oddball, showing up in a suit.

As they waited for a break after about fifteen minutes of constant running, Wei Jun excused himself and entered the woods beside the stairs and unequipped his suit while he stored the robe and pants and then equipped them as well.

He came out, Lin Ruan looked at him suspiciously but didn't say anything. Wei Jun and Lin Ruan resumed their journey.

The ceremony was to commence at 11, they arrived by 10.

"What now?" Wei Jun asked.

"Now we find grandfather and stick to him. We are his only official disciples." Lin Ruan said.

"Is there a sect guide or something I can read?" Wei Jun asked.

Lin Ruan pulled something from her wide sleeves. It was a phone and she opened up a file on it. she tossed the phone to Wei Jun and said, "Give it back once you're done."

Wei Jun gave the hundred-page manual a good read at a fast pace. After half an hour, he was done. He was glad that he had passed that much time.

Soon, they arrived at what looked like a castle. A giant old Chinese palace. And, more stairs.

The stairs led to the entrance of the palace where eight guards with spikes in their hands stood like British soldiers, unmoving aside from the slight breath that would lightly raise their chest.

"Name and affiliation." A female dressed in a white robe spoke from behind the guards.

"Elder Ruan. Lin and Wei Jun Ruan." Lin Ruan said while Wei Jun remained quiet.

The woman glanced at Wei Jun and asked, "I will conquer all the women in the world?"

Wei Jun flinched. He looked at her with cold eyes and the women slightly shivered. She coughed and said, "I apologize. You're a kind of a legend around here."

[Legend she says]

'You want to get punched in the face?' Wei Jun asked.

[Sorry, host]

The woman nodded to both of them and they were allowed in. Wei Jun followed Lin Ruan and both of them arrived at the front courtyard of the palace, where at least 1000 people of all ages could be seen from 10 to at least 50. Wei Jun even spotted some old ones in the crowd.

"These are the outer disciples." Lin Ruan said. Wei Jun nodded because he already knew what outer disciples meant. They were the side trash in a simpler definition. Join the adventure on m-vl-e-mpyr

Errand boys for the sect or servants, pick one. They were given minimal resources and even for them, they had to fight a lot. There was no discipline until a direct rule of the sect, for which, they would be punished. Other than that, anything else was allowed.

Lin Ruan took a path that circled around the outer courtyard and arrived at another gate. This time there were only guards. Lin Ruan showed a wooden piece, a plaque, to the guard who nodded and then looked at Wei Jun.

"He is invited by Elder Ruan." Lin Ruan spoke on his behalf.

The guards nodded and allowed them in.

This time, the crowd was less. Very less actually, around 200. And all of these people were young. Between 10 and 25. 30 at most.

The inner disciples. These were like the students in a classroom, all treated the same by the elders of the sect.

Their performance didn't interest the elder but they had the potential to make them interested. Their resources were at least ten times that of the outer disciples and unlike the outer disciples, although they didn't matter much to the sect elders, they still mattered to some extent so their arrogance was a lot.

Still, Lin Ruan didn't head over there but once again circled around them using a path on the left and arrived at another gate. This time, no guard stopped her and Wei Jun and they both entered the core courtyard of the palace.

The core disciples area.